California’s governor has announced a Global Climate Action Summit, to be held shortly before the 24th United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (COP 24). This will be the first time that a US state holds a climate conference with the clear purpose of supporting the Paris Agreement.

In December 2018, the 24th United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (COP 24) will take place. According to the official description, these conferences are “inspired by the vision and objectives of the historic Paris Agreement. [They are] designed to respond to the needs of all governments and help Parties achieve their ambitious objectives in the wake of the Agreement’s rapid entry into force.“

The Paris Agreement was drafted in 2015 and signed one year later. In it, the partaking 195 UNFCCC (United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change) member countries have agreed to taking individual steps in order to help mitigating global warming. Earlier this year, US President Donald Trump decided to withdraw the United States from the agreement – a widely critized step.

California clearly marching against Trump’s direction

Nonetheless, California has decided, among other states, to continue the quest for a greener climate future. Edmund “Jerry“ Brown, the Californian governor, attended the recent Global Citizen Festival in Hamburg, Germany, and used this opportunity to declare that “it’s up to you and it’s up to me and tens of millions of other people to get it together to roll back the forces of carbonization and join together to combat the existential threat of Climate Change. That is why we’re having the Climate Action Summit in San Francisco in September 2018.”

Summit is milestone in American climate history

The upcoming Climate Action Summit will be a milestone in America’s climate history, as it will be the first time a U.S. state has hosted an international climate change conference with the direct goal of supporting the Paris Agreement. The Summit’s target is to bring together businesses, investors, representatives from individual states and the civil society to make a mark for a greener future, and to find ways to make sure action is being taken in order to achieve it.